Even the New York Times Fears Socialized Medicine

The New York Times laid out some of the problems with socialized medicine in Britain in an article published Wednesday.

The Times points to a case in which a five-year-old boy with a brain tumor set off an international hunt for the boy and his family. Critics of the National Health Service say Britain far overstepped its boundaries after it arrested the boy’s parents.

NHS denied five-year-old Ashya King an advanced cancer treatment known as proton beam therapy for his brain tumor. In a desperate attempt to get treatment for their son, Ashya’s parents traveled to Madrid to sell their holiday home. The parents took their son out of a Hampshire hospital without permission.

British police began an international hunt for the parents and issued a European arrest warrant, according to the Times. Spanish police launched a social media campaign to find them. The police tweeted an alert for the parents and received a response within minutes saying the family’s minivan had been spotted. The parents were detained within hours after quick coordination between British and Spanish authorities.

Three days later, the parents were released from custody and reunited with their son after British prosecutors dropped the case.